I can't believe some of these comments in response to Pagilia's article. I don't read Salon all that much, but if Pagilia is really so off the mark with her articles, why isn't everyone just laughing it off, not bothering to read what she writes, and certainly not bothering to comment? That would be the rational thing to do, if you really believe what you're saying.

In fact, I don't get the whole Palin "mania" of Salon and so many liberal bloggers. It's not that most on this forum ever had any intention of voting for the Republican ticket anyway. So you should be happy McCain made such a foolish choice, and she shouldn't be upsetting you at all.

Why is it this woman Palin brings out the worst in so many of you? And why are so many afraid of Pagilia's somewhat offbeat opinions? This country is in a lot of trouble right now, and we need to work together and involve everyone if we're going to find some way to fix things. That's true no matter who wins this election. If you think either Obama or McCain really have a clue how to proceed on putting this country back on track once they're elected, think again.

or he would have been able to write that or think of that himself. He can't think anymore. He is crabby and incoherent, disrespectful and doddering. That is all.

Did I want to go to VietNam? NO! Did I go? YES! Two reasons. I saw it as my duty and I was ordered. I felt no qualms about the death of a NVA as they were trying to kill me. In retrospect I still think VietNam was right. My qualms were with LBJ and MacNamara who were the ones that accelerated the war. As an 18 year old "kid" I listened to what my upbringing taught me, to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Was the domino therory right? I beiieve so, in some ways, as Cambodia fell to Pol Pot and South VietNam fell to the NVA. It was more than just a civil war.

Richard Donaway

Of course Sarah Palin gives a voice to anti-choice feminists, and home-maker feminists, and rugged individualists, and frontierswomen, and those who admire small-town values. She also is giving a voice to racists, and homophobes, and book-burners, and those who feel their version of the bible should replace the constitution. Your championing of the former, while ignoring the latter, makes me wonder: if Hitler had been a beautiful woman, would you have been an early admirer?

The displeasure with Paglia's pleasure in Palin is likely the result of having festooned the writing career of Paglia at one time or for much time in my case.

Lycanthrope, or shapeshifter. Rituals in Palin's church to protect her from evil spirits or witches. Palin's method is masculine, she is masculine. Cut off wolf paws, Palin pays you $150 per, shoot them from helicopters. Lycanthrope hunting, killing shapeshifers, bring the paws into my governor's office, I'll pay you $150 for the shapeshifter's front left paw, helps me dowse the witch coming to eat me.

Of course people are going to react to these kind of editorials. One thing anybody with half a brain has learned the last eight years is that we live in a bizarro world. Didn't we re-elect and give a free pass to the worst president in American history. Now look at the country. Unless, of course, your'e one of the wealthiest one percent who has taken full advantage of the middle class the last eight years, you would be a moron not to react to this spew. Let me guess, your'e a big Fox viewer. Wow, what a surprise.

What you have totally missed is that it doesn't matter what liberals think of Sarah Palin. They can dismiss her or take her seriously - a dubious proposition if there ever was one - but they have to convince so many ignorant people, say, like you, that she is a dangerous moron. Taking her seriously would require there is something to take from that insult to our intelligence.

My God, Ms. Paglia. If you were two IQ points lower you would be a box.

John F. Kennedy was not a great president. Need anyone remind you of the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis and finally riding in an open convertible in Dallas Texas in a trip arrange by Lyndon Johnson. JFK was charismatic man without honor or loyalty to anyone including his wife.

I for one have to question how anyone can separate the loyalty associated with honoring your commitment to your wife and marriage with loyalty to your country. McCain is an honorable man. Obama may be one as well but much more of a politician. Unfortunately we need much more than both these candidates offer to get out the mess our leaders from Reagan through Bush I, Clinton and Bush II have led us to. We need someone who can lead us from the brink of disaster back to the American Dream. Who is that? We don't have anyone because anyone with that talent and capability is also smart enough to stay well away from the meat grinder of American politics.

William Taylor

Springboro, OH

other than, so far, the absence of hoods and a burning cross, does she still qualify as the future of feminism

...is hopefully her brand of feminism (which is hardly new, just underrepresented) will shut up the likes of Phyllis Schaffley and the Eagle Forum...I hope, I pray, even if it's in vain.

While I'm not usually a fan of Camille's writing, this time she has what I believe to be a valid point: there is not one brand of feminism, and to think there is only one kind is to do a disservice to other women who believe in equality between men and women, which is a core tenant of the movement I've been a part of for the past 26 years of my life in earnest.

I'm an independent voter leaning toward liberal politics, but am not swayed by party alone. While I am not voting for the McCain/Palin ticket, it's for all of those other reasons many of us aren't voting for them (such as provincialism and religious intolerance), not just for the fact that they're Republican. I like firearms but don't think they should be used wantonly (I'd hunt for food, but not for sport) and I believe in comprehensive family planning. I'm religious, but not Christian. In short, I probably see things a lot differently than Sarah Palin in a lot of ways, save one: we both believe in women's equality with men.

I grew up in the "lower middle class" and as a consequence spent many years doing residential, commercial and event construction (carpentry, operating heavy machinery, pyrotech etc.) so I could pay my way through 7 years of private university education. Because I've spent so much of my life wearing different collars, I've discovered some really interesting, but seemingly basic things: not all Repubs are anti-family planning, greedy religious zealots, and not all liberals are selfless, feminist, and environmentally friendly. I've met anti-abortion Democrats and pro-choice Republicans. There are actually a lot of both, tho most people I've met on either side seem to believe in comprehensive family planning. That our politicians use abortion as a wedge issue is highly cynical and dangerous; it means they can, and will, do whatever else they want to do, regardless of whose best interest it's in.

There are many faces to feminism, and just because I don't see eye-to-eye with Palin on a lot of issues does not make her a non-feminist. She may be provincial, a zealot, a wanton killer of animals and many other things I don't like, but to say she has no feminist sensibility, even as she shares the child-rearing with her husband and both work outside the home, is to do a disservice to much of what our foremothers stood for.